


Nobless Obligay

by thewritehag



Category: City Watch - Fandom, Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Genre: Dress shopping, Gen, friends helping friends, headcanon: Nobby's nonbinary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 01:52:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9635651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewritehag/pseuds/thewritehag
Summary: Cheery (or Cheri) is looking for a dress to take to Uberwald (and maybe just to have) when she runs into a colleague who looks more than a little lost.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is kinda taking place before the events of the Fifth Elephant, but I'm fudging the timeline a tad.

Cheery was about ready to duck into the center of the dress carousel and simply climb up the rack just to see the tops of some of these dresses when the shop’s doorbell tinkled. She hadn’t been a copper for very long, more a lab rat even, but she had developed that level of sensory awareness. She was able to do her dress shopping and see the entire garment—she would not hop, godsdamnit—while also taking note of somebody entering the premises. More like slinking. Cheery shifted herself to be behind the rack and see the door. What she saw caused her mouth to fall open.

“What—” plastered against the wall next to the door was a clearly uncomfortable Corporal Nobby Nobbs. Something the shop keeper took note of, too. 

“How can I help you, er…?” The woman asked. Her hair piled on top of herself to what the Commander would probably think of as an illegal height for something not an appendage or otherwise made of flesh and bone*. 

Nobby sunk a little in on himself and opened his mouth to say something, but ended up doing a stunning impersonation of the fish in the market, just brought in and still flopping.

“Corporal,” Cheery heard herself say and watched herself from inside jogging to stand between him and the shopkeeper. “Corporal Nobbs? Is everything Okay?”

Nobby looked down and saw the mostly bearded face of Corporal Littlebottom, looking closer to a dead fish now.

“Oh,” the shop attendant said, “is the, uh, corporal here with you, Cheri?”

“Something like that, Yvvi,” she said to the woman, whom she had only gotten to know since visiting the shop a few times with Angua, even once with Ruby, “thank you.”

Yvvi nodded, her lips pursed and the corners going up slightly, and went back to arranging the dressmaker dummies behind the counter, half turned as to keep her peripheral vision on the two of them.

“Is everything alright, corporal?” Cheery asked again, turning back to Nobby.

“Fine, it’s—it’s fine.” Nobby breathed deep once or twice and, Cheery noted him cast a look around the shop, eyes wide with naked longing.

“No chases? Commander Vimes doesn’t need me for anything? No…” she trailed off as Nobby shook his head vigorously. His eyes had settled on the rack filled with sundresses near the opposite side of the shop from the dresses she was looking at.

“Well, that’s good,” Cheery said.   
Nobby nodded and peered around the small room gave the fabric and dresses a final look before turning to leave. 

“Only!” she didn’t mean to shout, but Nobby did stop and look back, “I’m looking for a dress to wear for an assignment and I could use a second pair of eyes?”

Nobby blinked at her, then at his hand on the doorknob to leave. He let it fall away and turned back into the store.

“Oh, well,” Nobby said and shuffled his feet. “Alright. If you think I can help.”

“Thank you, Corporal,” Cheery said and went back to the circular stand of dresses. 

“I can help you reach them, too,” Nobby said a little more cheerfully. 

Cheery looked at them sidelong and decided, taking in Nobby’s pleasant looking smile, that he didn’t mean the worse. It’s not as if he’s Colon. Of course, he never seems to mean the worse, either. Just his way, almost everyone said.

“Thank you,” she said again as they stood at the carousel she had been standing at before. 

Cheery could only see the middle of the skirts and helm really well, so the help would be nice without resorting to scaling walls with her axe. 

Moments passed and she felt awkward suddenly, with Nobby nearby and no police work to be doing. Her hand shot out quickly to rub the fabric of a dark green skirt between her thumb and fingers. 

“For an assignment, is it?” Nobby asked suddenly.

“Oh, the, uh,” Cheery stammered, “the Uberwald one. I’m going as guard and, I suppose, unofficial emissary.”

“Fancy,” he said and tugged the green dress out and held it down a little for Cheery to get a better look at. The collar had some silvery flecks sewn into it, little punctures in the centers held down by the thread. Pretty enough for the city, but the dwarves back home will have enough reason to wag their tongues without gem-fakery being flaunted at the same time she was…flaunting. 

Gods, she hated the idea. 

“Right,” Cheery agreed, refocusing her thoughts to the task. “I mean, I was thinking of doing it for a while, anyway. I can stitch leather okay and I’m great with molding the armor, when I have a forge at hand, but the delicate stuff...a professional touch would be best.”

“Makes sense.” 

They stood there a moment longer, Cheery disliking the dress more and more, even if the skirt would float around her boots when she walked.

“I don’t know if this is the right coloring,” Nobby said. Cheery looked up at him and saw him looking between herself and the dress thoughtfully. “And, it depends on the eevent, supposin’.”

“Oh.” Cheery nodded slowly. “I hadn’t thought of that. This is all pretty new to me.”

“Me, too,” Nobby said quickly and hastily put the dress back. “I mean, that is. I don’t know nuffin about this sorta thing, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Cheery said and gave him a small smile. She looked at another dress a few down from the green and touched it lightly. “What, what do you think of this red one?”

“It’d look good with your beard, sure,” he said and pulled it out. “The collar’s not so frippery, neither.”

“It’s not,” Cheery said and looked closer at it. It was a sturdy fabric, but pretty. Dark red like raw rubies and a, what did Angua call it? Did she call it anything?

“That’s a boat neckline,” Nobby said and touched the fabric as she had touched the green skirt before. “Not a lot of people with broad shoulders go for it, but I think it makes a pretty statement.”

“Really?” Cheery looked up at him and, whatever Nobby saw in her face, he grinned at her.

“Yeah. It’ll look nice with your ornaments, too. Yer axe and helmet. And, the boots.”

“Right. I’ll need to get it tailored,” she said and accepted the dress when Nobby handed it to her.

Nobby nodded and had his tongue stuck out at the corner of his mouth. 

“What about you, corporal? Is there anything you want to look at?”

“Me,” he said vaguely and his eyes snapped back to hers. “Me? Naw, nah. I mean, what would Fred say? What would anyone say…”

His eyes darted to the purple and yellow sundresses, then back again for longer. 

“Well, I thought you had an assignment, too? That one about maintaining the city’s traffic and I dunno…” Cheery hemmed a moment, “something about catching unlicenced thieves.”

“Yeah,” Nobby said slowly. “Yeah, now that you mention it.”

Nobby gave Cheery a seam-burst of a smile and headed over to the dresses he had been so interested in. 

“You got a good head for policin’,” he said when Cheery caught up. “No wonder the Commander hired you.”

“Thank you, sir. I think I’ll make a tailoring appointment for this,” she indicated the dress folded and draped over her arms. “Want me to make one for you, too?”

“Nah,” Nobby said. He snatched a yellow sundress spotted with white flowers and little bumble bees. “Might just wear this out, whatchoo think, Corporal Littlebottom.”

Cheery smiled.

“I think that’s a great idea, sir. And, thank you for helping me.”

“No problem,” he said and grabbed another dress while she went to the counter to talk to the shop keeper.

**Author's Note:**

> *Cheery shuddered at the thought. Knowing the good people of Ankh-Morpork, they would take that kind of law pretty literally.


End file.
